Water rushed and swirled around me. I crawled up the steps that led out of the pool. I reached for my carved Kraken, but it bobbed out of reach. Water rushed past. I looked up. The real Kraken stood high above me. His giant body was not quite as it appeared in the sculptures and carvings. He had no face, he was a mountain of stone. But His magnificent horn was longer than my body. It stuck from his forehead and curved upward.

“Telle, run!” Jenna’s voice came from the hall behind me. Kraken bent forward. His giant horn arced toward me. It gained speed as it bore down. I rolled to my left. His horn smashed into the water next to me. The stone carved steps cracked under the force of his blow. A geyser of water and stone chips blew me sideways. I tumbled end over end in the wake. The water washed back into the lake, leaving me on the ruined steps.

“Telle, get out of there!” Freya said. I rolled onto my stomach and crawled forward. I coughed and spat out a lungful of water. Behind me, Kraken slowly rose to stand at his full height.

I scrambled up the steps. I got to my feet.

“Oh, Kraken!” I said. I stood and faced him. “My name is Telle Smellme. Thank you for saving me so many times, I want to do your will!,” I shouted. Kraken took a slow step forward. His foot hung in the air for a second that seemed like it would never end. Then it slammed into stone in front of me. My ears rang from the noise. I turned and sprinted down the hall as fast as I could, leaving Kraken well behind me. I joined the others in the main room. We heard Kraken down the hallway, lumbering toward us. I felt dizzy.

“Kraken what is your plan for me?” I shouted.

"Telly you idiot it's some horrid monster!" Chastity shouted.

Kraken appeared down the hallway. He swung his head mechanically from left to right with each step. Chips of stone and sparks flew as his horn struck the wall on either side. He stepped slowly forward, his giant square feet pounded the floor. Water splashed high into the air with each pounding of his feet.

My heart pounded in my chest. I felt like one of his chiseled feet had kicked me in my stomach. He lumbered toward us.

“It’s getting’ pretty deep in here,” Grundy said. The water was up to my waist.

“How do we get to that coffin?” Drexel asked.

“Forget about the coffin. We need to get out of here,” Freya said.

“No,” Jenna said. “The artifact is in that coffin is worth the risk, if we have it, stopping Tang will be easy.”

"We can't kill that thing! How do you kill a walking rock?" Chastity screamed. Panic was setting in. "Oh God it's almost in the room!"

Kraken entered the room. He lumbered toward us. I felt like I was watching everything from far, far away.

“Scatter!” I heard Freya say. There were splashing around me. I looked around and saw that I was all alone. I waded toward the right arm corridor. Kraken bent forward. His horn slammed into the water where we stood a moment before.

“May His horn miss us!” I screamed.

“Telle, that’s not Kraken!” Jenna said.

Kraken stood back up and faced me.

She ran past Him to the entrance to the hallway. She raised her arms and began to mumble. Soon, a black raven sprang from her hands. The bird sizzled through the air and struck Kraken in the back of his head. The acid dripped harmlessly off the solid stone.

“You can’t hurt Kraken,” I said. “How dare you even try.” Kraken stopped. He slowly turned around. My stomach turned. On Kraken’s back was a huge carving. It was a circle with three slashes. Property of Lengnil.

“That’s not a god, it's just animated stone!" Jenna shouted to me, frantic, "He was created by Lengnil to guard his coffin, he's no more of a god than that miniature pig skeleton Gurloin animated before!” Jenna said. Her voice echoed from down the hall. I looked around the room. The walls started to spin. I blinked my eyes. I felt as if I had a fever. I watched Jenna run toward Kraken. The water was up to her chest, so she couldn’t move very quickly. I sat down in the water. It was up to my neck. Jenna splashed her way right up to Kraken. He stopped and bent forward. His horn struck the water behind her. The ripples from the blow sloshed across the room and washed over my head. Chunks of marble were being pushed around by the current. I closed my eyes. The sounds of their shouts wavered out as the water passed over my ears.

I sat under water. I opened my eyes. Jenna jogged in slow motion through the room. From under the water I heard the loud grinding of stone machinery in the walls. It grew louder. More water gushed into the arms. A current in the water tugged me toward the illusion of a wall at one of the arm hallways. It pulled harder. I slid along the floor. I was completely submerged. My lungs began to burn. I didn’t care if I ever breathed another breath.

I skidded and bumped with the current. I was dragged toward the corridor where I found the Goblinizer. Two muscular legs blocked my way. They were Freya’s. Her hands appeared in front of me. She grabbed my shoulders and pulled me up. I gasped. Suddenly, the room was filled with different noise.

“The place is filling up, but some of the water is draining into holes at the ends of the arms," Freya shouted over the rush of water. A river surged from the ceiling at the end of the hall. Water boiled at the end of the arm. A whirlpool spun under the deluge.

"So we drown while we try to swim away and are sucked back towards the deepest water...Legnil made great traps!” Drexel shouted.

“If we get sucked into that whirlpool, we’ll never get out alive,” she shouted.

“Fine,” I muttered.

“What?” She asked. She put her face close to mine.

“Who cares?” I asked.

Chastity screamed as the stone monster crashed its horn down, barely missing her. Gurdy ran to her aid. He kicked the thing in its foot, then winced in pain.

“Pull yourself together Telle,” Freya said. She unwound the leather wrap around her body. She was completely naked. I had never seen any woman naked before. Her graceful curves of toned muscle looked completely out of place in the stone tomb.

“You’re beautiful,” I said. She frowned and tied the leather wrap around my waist. She tied herself to the rope. I felt the rope draw tight around me.

Freya leaned against the current and pulled me into the center of the room. I heard the rushing water, grinding gears, and huge explosions of water and stone as that mindless rock slowly chased Gurdy around the room. I stared up at the markings on the walls. The letters glowed. Their reflections bounced off the water and across the room. The light danced across Freya’s back as she pulled us against the pull of the water. I looked to my right. Jenna sat on Drexel’s shoulders. The water would have been over her head. Drexel strained to keep his footing against the current.

Eluded by Gurdy, Lengnil's rockpile staggered toward Jenna and Drexel. He was about to smash them with his horn. Jenna held the golden rod that Drexel had taken earlier. She grasped it in both hands, shouting over the rushing water, and shook the rod toward Kraken. A beam of white light shot from the rod. It struck the thing in the chest. Jenna’s eyes rolled back. Her ears stuck straight out. She chanted. Her body was rigid. She clung to the rod. Kraken tried to lean forward. The light held him where he stood. He pushed forward, leaning with his full weight against the beam. Jenna’s ears began to flutter. The rod shook in her hands.

Drexel looked up at Jenna on his shoulders. He held her leg with one arm, and the rest of his loot with the other. He looked as if he might drop her and run.

“Don’t you dare!” Freya said. Drexel looked at Freya guiltily. Kraken just barely leaned forward. His horn started a slow move toward the two.

“Boulder to stone, stone to pebble!” Jenna said. Her voice cracked. The light pulsed and dimmed. The horn drew nearer. Drexel took a half a step backward, Jenna started to slip off. She opened her mouth wide.

“Lengnilus minimal!” A voice that barely sounded like Jenna’s boomed through the room. Kraken stopped. He stood completely still. The light snaked around his body. Then he started to shrink. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. It was true. Kraken slowly shrank. Jenna repeated the phrase. Her voice was deafening. Kraken shrank to almost my size, maybe even smaller. Her chanting reached such a pitch that the rod shattered in Jenna’s hands. The light vanished. She fainted, falling backwards off of Drexel’s shoulders with a splash.

Grundy waded through the water. It was up to his neck. His wide frame moved slowly toward little Kraken. He lowered his head and put his hands out in front. He pushed against Kraken’s chest with all his might. Kraken swung his little horn back and forth mechanically. Grundy dodged it and kept pushing. He moved Kraken with the current, toward the arm hallway. Freya moved quickly toward Grundy, dragging me behind her. The current swirled around us.

Grundy shoved Kraken into the arm. The current swept them both slowly down the hall and toward the whirlpool. Grundy stopped pushing Kraken. He turned and tried to wade back out of the arm, but the current was too strong.

“Grundy!” Freya said. She threw her wrap toward him. He reached out for it as the water dragged him backwards. He grabbed the leather with both hands. The line went taught and Freya and I both jerked forward.

“Pull, Telle,” Freya said. I tried to walk backwards. My feet slid along the floor. The water was up to my neck.

“Drexel, Chastity, help!” Freya said. Chastity was far across the room. She turned toward us, pointed at her ears and shouted something I couldn't hear over the din of water. Then she ducked into the crushing corridor, making her way back towards the feet of the temple.

Drexel waded toward us. Jenna was draped, unconscious, over his shoulders. He grabbed onto my arms. Together we pulled. Grundy began to move out of the arm. Kraken made a lunge with his horn. The tip struck Grundy in his back. He winced and kept walking against the current. Kraken toppled over backwards. His small heavy body slowly swirled three times in the whirlpool. He was still thrashing his horn. On the third turn he sank into the middle. The tip of his horn was the last to vanish under the spinning water.

Drexel tied Jenna and then himself to the rope. We swam towards the head. Once we were away from the arm, the current wasn’t as strong, and the water was shallower. At the head of the Tomb, the water was shallow and just draining into the underground lake. Drexel swam down to the coffin. He wrapped Freya's rope around the it and tied off the end. I watched them dragged the coffin out of the underground lake. As soon as it bumped up the steps and out of the pool where it had lain, cracks appeared in the ceiling above. Chunks of stone fell from above and crashed into the water. A stone column buckled and fell with a splash.

“And now, of course, the tomb is collapsing,” Freya said. She led us back down the neck. The rush of water was a roar, as we strained to get past the arms. The head room collapsed. A wave from the collapse swept us all off our feet. We bobbed through the frothing water. I held my breath as we approached the narrow entrance where Gurloin had stopped the ceiling from crushing us. The crushing corridor was completely submerged. The pressure of the water sucked Freya under. The rope tugged at my waist. In an instant, I was yanked down. We shot through the opening. I swirled under water. I had no idea which way was up. The rope yanked at my waist again and I shot to the surface.

Sticks, cloth, and the detritus of years of smooger infestation bobbed around our heads. The water was covered with a yellow foam. A current swept us against the bars of the succubus' portcullis. Something must have triggered it, the gate was down. The water forced us against the bars. The bottom half of the Succubus floated by. Her entrails bobbed in the foamy water as the current sucked them toward me. The others floated to me in the current. They all piled against me. The rushing water pinned us against the gate. The familiar grinding came from the wall. The gate slowly raised.

I grabbed the iron gates and pushed myself under the sharp points. The force of the water blasted me past the gate. Again, we popped to the surface, coughing and treading water. The current moved us through the sooty room and into one of the legs of Lengnil's Tomb. Arrows floated around us. Together, we all floated into the last room. The sculpture of Kraken had broken into it's component peices and floated in the water. It knocked against the wall as the room filled. Water bubbled up from below. It still pulsed with a powerful energy. It churned and boiled. It felt like we could be sucked under at any second. Freya led the swim to the rope ladder. The water rose more quickly than we climbed the ladder. That was helpful to Drexel, who strained to pull the coffin up behind us. By the time we got to the tunnel to the surface, we were completely submerged.

Where the mud tunnel narrowed, we were forced through like shot through a cannon. We slid and scraped through the mud in a blur. I saw light. We flew into the air. We landed in mud. We rolled along the ground, all tangled together in rope. Chastity was here already, collapsed from exhaustion. A geyser of water shot from the hole. A group of wide-eyed smoogers blinked at us.

“They awoke Kraken!” The smooger woman who had fed us earlier shouted. The smoogers shouted and ran in all directions. The water soaked into the ground. It slowly spread, turning the town to mud. Sporatically, the geyser would clog up for a moment, then cough up gore and debris with the water.

“Where’s Gurloin?” The woman asked.

“He’s with Kraken,” I said, exhausted. I lay my cheek in the mud and closed my eyes. The next few hours were a blur of feet splashing in mud, prayers and screams. Sheesha licked my face but I waved her away. I was ready to die. I dreamt of Kraken chasing me around and around my mother's home in Pusstown. I dreamt we were all sucked into the whirlpool. Water rushed into my mouth. I choked and gagged. When I awoke. My face was in a puddle. It was night. I sat up and spat the muddy water out of my mouth.

Sheesha stood over me. Yellow eyes blinked in the darkness. When a smooger came near, Sheesha growled and the smoogers moved back. The others were piled sparsly around me, sleeping. Everyone was completely covered in mud. Grundy snored. Even Drexel was passed out on his back. I closed my eyes and went back to sleep. When I woke again, it was daylight. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I nudged Drexel with my foot. He snapped awake.

“Get your hands off my…” he said. He looked around. He felt for the amulet around his neck. He smiled. Jenna sat up. She shoved Freya who yawned and got up. Grundy woke up. He pushed Chastity’s leg off his arm. She groaned.

“I had the worst dream,” Chastity said. She rubbed her eyes and sat up. She screamed and jumped back from the legs of the succubus that lay in the mud next to her. Stinkflies crawled across the puckered dead skin. When Sheesha was sure I was awake, she curled up at my side and went to sleep.

“That dog needs a bath,” Grundy said, wiping some mud off of his face.

Sheesha twitched as the flies crawled across her filthy body. She looked as if she had rolled in the remains of the succubus.

The smoogers returned. They watched us silently. I stood up and they moved back in fear. Off to the right lay the top half of the succubus. I turned away from the sight. My stomach felt hollow. I realized I was starving.

“How long were we asleep?” Freya asked. She wrapped the leather rope around her body. I noticed the Goblinzer glinting in the mud beside her.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“I am so hungry,” Chastity said, "I feel like i haven't eaten in days.

“Me too,” Grundy said. The woman who had fed us earlier walked cautiously up to us. She kneeled.

“You who have seen Kraken, tell us of his will,” she said in goblin.

“We’re hungry,” I said. “And we don’t want grass and dung either.” She shouted to some other goblins.

“Food for the holy ones,” she said. They ran off. “The finest.” She called after them.

"The holy ones," I said. "What a joke".

“We should be eating soon,” I said. Drexel sat in the mud. His hair was limp and filthy.

Some smooger kids poked the succubus corpse with sticks. Sheesha snored at my feet. Jenna found her leather backpack. Her books fell onto the ground, along with some smaller items and the leather portfolio I’d taken from Tang. Water poured out. Everything was soaked, but intact.

“We need to get that open,” Jenna said. She pointed at the white coffin, sticking out of the mud. Her eyes sparkled when she looked at it.

“Don't you ever stop?” Drexel asked.

“Food for Kraken’s chosen” The smooger woman returned, "Kraken has sent this bounty while you slept." She held out a tray of charred miniature gilmic pigs. Freya grimaced. I grabbed on and popped it into my mouth. It was chewy. The little bones snapped, hurting my mouth. I spit the splinters of bone out and swallowed. We all ate.

"Guess these things aren't as extinct as I thought" Grundy said.

Freya sat down next to me.

"Telle, how is your sanity today?" She asked.

"Im fine" I bit into a tiny pigs foot. "But I wonder how fine my Mom and Reese are. There is no God."

Freya Frowned. "You don't sound fine, Telle" She said.

"Well, how would you sound if your whole life turned out to be a joke played by some stilt"

"Cheer up, Telle" Chastity said, "Your Kraken just wasn't here, that doesn't mean he doesn't exist"

"Cut the crap, Chastity" I snapped, "The sculpture hanging in the lobby down there says this was my Kraken. That mindless boulder down there had Kraken's Horn. That thing killed all the smoogers that got to it, so the smoogers thought that it owned the place, because they're incredibly stupid. The stupid smoogers started worshiping it, and the rest is history. My whole religion is some big smooger misunderstanding. And somehow they conned everybody in Pusstown into believing it."

“You know, I think I would have preferred the grass,” Drexel said. He gnawed on a long, thin tail. His skin was greener than usual.

“Drexel, could you do me a favor?” I asked.

“I'm on vacation,” he said. He bit into another little pig. I handed him the portfolio.

“I need to know what’s in here." I need to know what Tang did to my people. It’s all I have left,” I said.

“Forget it,” he said. He swallowed. The glint of the Goblinizer caught my eye. It lay in the mud near Sheesha. I wandered to it, hoping Freya wouldn't see.

Grundy grabbed the tray with the gilmic pigs. There was only one left.

“Anyone want the last one?” He asked. Nobody did. He picked it up and looked it over. He thought better of it and put it back. The smooger woman walked up to me. She clenched her hands in front of her.

“I beg you, give us news of Kraken. His horn missed you, praise Kraken,” she said. She knelt at my feet.

“There is no Kraken, you stupid smooger,” I said. The goblins around us gasped. She looked up at me. She held her hands out.

“I know we are not worthy, but tell us of our Lord Kraken. Surely you have wisdom,” she said. Her hand shook. “It has been so long since anyone has seen Kraken,” she said.

“Tell us Telle…” She asked again. Her stringy hair hung down to her shoulders. Her lips trembled. A red wart with three long black hairs sat above her right eye.

I bent down on one knee. I felt in the mud with my right hand until I found the Goblinizer. The handle practically jumped into my hand. A jolt shot up my right arm. I leaned close so that my nose was practically touching hers. She flinched.

“Look into my eyes,” I said. Her bloodshot eyes focused on mine. “I do have one thing to show you,” I slowly brought the flat side of the knife around. I pressed the side of the blade against her cheek.

“Ahhhh!” Her mouth opened wide. Her eyes turned completely white. I felt the blade drain her vision. She fell back. A puffy red burn in the shape of the knife stood out on her face.

“I told you there is no Kraken!” I said.

“More…” The knife pulled against my arm. The woman crawled away from me, screaming. She patted the ground with her hands.

“Stupid smoogers!” I said. I held the knife above my head. “I told you there is no Kraken. Now leave this place. You should all die.”

“Telle, knock it off,” Grundy said. Freya looked at me. Her muscles tensed. I closed my eyes and forced the blade down. I tried to put it into my belt. The knife tried to twist in my hand, but I moved back and then put it away.

The other smooger ran to the screeching woman.

“She bears the sign of Kraken on her cheek,” he said.

“His horn is mighty.” Another said. They helped her away. Freya took the portfolio.

“Drexel, do Telle a favor and open this,” she said. Drexel sighed.

“I get half of whatever is inside,” he said.

“Fine,” I said. He pulled a thin rod from his boot and jammed it into the lock. He worked it for a second and the strap popped open. He opened the portfolio. He laughed and showed it to me. On a wet piece of very old parchment was a drawing of a young gnomish woman. It wasn’t even a good sketch.

“What in Kraken’s name?” I said. I blushed. “I mean…”

“Don’t ask me,” Drexel said. “But I don’t need my half.” He handed me the portfolio. I stared at the picture a while, then folded it up and stuffed it in my pocket. I sat back in the mud and put my head in my hands. Jenna and Drexel dragged the coffin of Lengnil away and began to work on opening it. Drexel pried with a long pick. It snapped. He swore and began to work on a latch with a tiny saw. Peices of the big sculpture of Kraken lay in the mud. I could still faintly feel the pulse of Kraken’s power. I picked up a peice and turned it over in my hands. I threw it to the ground. Freya saw me. She walked over and sat next to me.

“It must be hard to see Kraken..,” she said. She put her hand on my shoulder.

“A mindless hunk of stone,” I said. I looked down at the mud. My stomach growled as it worked on the chunks of gilmic pig. “I don’t get it,” I said. I looked at Freya. “All my life, it has always been Kraken who kept me alive. Kraken who gave me strength. I felt him, his power. If it weren’t for Kraken I’d have died long ago,” I said. Freya patted my head.

“And if Kraken isnt real, how did Gurloin do those incredible things?" I asked. “It doesn’t make any sense. Nothing makes any sense. My life…” I said.

“Telle,” Freya began, “In the monastery where I was trained, I was taught that Chau is the essence of all things,” she said. I sat back and pushed her hand away.

“I really don’t need a new religion right now,” I said.

“Just listen,” she said. “’Chau is in all things,’ is what they told me. They said it over and over. Finally I started to listen.” She looked me in the eye. “The more I listened, the more I believed. I became a better chef because of it.” She pulled up a fistful of wet grass. “I learned to find Chau where before I thought there was none,” she said. She held up the grass.

“Yeah, well, I thought Kraken was with me all the time too,” I said. I looked at her sideways.

“That’s my point,” she said. She twisted the grass in her hand. She took the last gilmic pig off the tray and wound the grass around it. She quickly split and kneaded the pig in her fingers. “I don’t believe in Chau because I find it.” She held up the pig. “I find Chau because I believe in it,” she said. She popped the pig in my mouth.

“It wasn’t Kraken that kept you alive, Telle,” she said. She got up. “It was your faith.” She walked to the others. I chewed on the pig. It was delicious.

“I got it,” Drexel said. His saw broke through a rod inside a lock. He pulled out a long pin with a hook. He slid it into the coffin and pulled back. There was a click, and then the lid popped open. A cloud of white dust rose from the coffin. A beam of brilliant light shone from the box. Even though it was day, the light shone with a single beam high into the sky.

“What is that?” Drexel asked. He reached inside the coffin. He pulled out a head-sized glowing sphere. It was almost too bright to look at. Freya went to the coffin.

“Beautiful,” Jenna said. Her ears fluttered. “It’s the dragon’s pearl,” she said. "Orka's prized possession before Lengnil tricked her out of it"

“That thing could get some attention,” Grundy said. The light grew. It became almost impossible to look at. The smoogers chirped and barked at the sight. They crept toward the light. The chattering and grunting spread around us. The smoogers crowded around. The smooger woman walked toward the pearl. Her blind face was turned toward the coffin.

“I see something. I see light…” she said.

“Stay back!” Freya said to the woman. The woman put her hands out.

“It is a gift from Kraken,” she said. Freya closed the lid of the coffin. The light vanished. Chastity squinted and walked toward the coffin. She passed me.

“What is that?” She asked.

“This sphere has had several names" Jenna said, full of enthusiasm, "The Pearl of Lengnil, Orka's Pearl, the Pearl of Power. It is older than this earth, and more potent than the sun. Lengnil crafted a special staff to harness it's incredible power,”

Jenna stared at the peices of the Kraken sculpture in the mud. She picked up the book of Lengnil.

"Oh my." She said, and went to collect the sculpture peices.

“So that’s what Reese died for?” Chastity said. She sat on the coffin. She looked at me.

“Your Kraken side trips...…”

“Praise Kraken!” A chorus went up from the grass. I glared at her. Chastity sighed.

“…...have not only cost Reese his life. They have wasted one, two days? Who knows how long I lay passed out in the mud next to that beast.” She flitted her hand at the succubus.

“And now all you can do is pout, and all they can think of is this glowing ball? We have bigger issues,” Chastity said. “Have you completely forgotten that the entire reason we’re wandering in this never-ending wasteland of grass?” She looked at Freya.

“So we can become too famous to be killed outright by the Bupinders!,” Chastity exclaimed.

"It doesn't sound any less foolish than it did the first time" Freya replied.

“You guys are in trouble with the Bupinders?” Grundy asked.

“It’s a long story,” Drexel said.

"Oh thats right" Grundy remembered.

“It's gotta be way too late to meet up with Falstaag by now." Chastity said. "You three can play with that ball all day if you want. But we found some weapons down there, and I suggest we use them against these smoogers, so we can get famous and get back to Barry’s,” Chastity said. She put her hand on my shoulder.

“I know I can count on you to kill smoogers, Telle,” Chastity said.

“Oh yes,” I said. I felt the Goblinizer pulsing in my belt.

“Do you know how ridiculous you sound?,” Drexel said. "First of all, nobody knows these particular goblins exist, so why would killing them make us famous heroes. Second of all, these dirty goblins have done nothing but help us since we got here. Even I have my limits."

Chastity pouted. "Well who knows where Falstaag is now," she said,"Probably already fought Tang. Barry is the only one who is looking out for us, and I think he'd want us to kill these cute, ugly smoogers.”

“Doesn’t honor mean anything to you?” Freya asked. She looked resigned. "These poor goblins are no threat to anyone"

“You can’t be too careful,” I said.

“Let’s sneak back to Tangs monestary and see if Falstaag routed that little turd. We'll help him if the fights not over,” Grundy said.

“Excellent. Then we have a plan,” Chastity said, looking cross. Everyone nodded.

"I can't believe it" Jenna said, from across the pit. She was arranging the peices of the sculpture in different configurations, glancing back and forth from the book of Lengnil. "Come take a look at this" she said.

“What are you doing?” I asked. She didn’t reply. She picked up a piece of the sculpture and snapped it onto the first piece. It fit, end-to-end. She assembled all five peices of the Kraken icon. They were in a different shape than the shape of Kraken. The peices fit more seamlessly in her configuration than they did on the wall of the tomb. The peices together formed a long, crooked pole. All that remained was the piece that had been Kraken’s horn. She took that piece and snapped it to the middle of the pole. It curved down to form a handle. At the tip of the staff was the hole that had been the eye of Kraken.

“Now let’s have one more look at that pearl,” Jenna said, handing the assembled staff to Chastity, and jogging to the coffin. She opened the coffin. The light flooded out and shot in a beam toward the sky. The dust of Lengnil's corpse swirled in the beam.

Chastity's head snapped up. Her back straightened. She stared straight ahead. Her hands felt on the ground for the other pieces of the statue. Her eyes rolled back in her head slightly. The coffin caught Chastity's eye, she marched toward it.

She held the rod in her hands and walked toward the coffin. She walked past Freya.

“Chastity, what…” Freya started to ask. Chastity swung the staff around in blur. The rod struck Freya in the side with a crunch. Freya staggered back into a crowd of smoogers.

“Now why did you do that?” Grundy asked. He backed away from Chastity. She walked toward the coffin. She reached with one hand into the dusty remains of Lengnil and pulled out the shining pearl.

"Chastity, put that down, it is not a toy." Jenna commanded.

Chastity fit the pearl into the slot at the end of the staff. It clicked into place. She turned to face us. Her eyes were half-closed. Her mouth was shut. The muscles of her face seemed to be holding something back.

A white halo emanated from the pearl. The glow of the halo flowed down the staff, and over Chastity's body. An energy flowed around her. Bolts of white light ran like veins through the glow and hissed like snakes as they wound around her arms and legs. Chastity’s body began to vibrate. She leveled the rod and pointed it at a group of smoogers. They cringed in fear. Chastity’s mouth stretched open.

“I have returned to cleanse the land,” It was Chastity's voice, but it didnt sound like her. She leaned back. The whine of energy grew louder. It reached a high pitch and then cracked. A thick bolt of white lightning shot from the staff, and streaked through the crowd of smoogers. Their screams were cut short. Chunks of burnt smooger flew in all directions. Pieces of yellow meat rained down on us. The bits that landed on Chastity sizzled on the white halo that surrounded her. Sheesha whined and hid behind me. I could barely hear. My ears rang from the blast.

Freya burst from the side. She flew through the air. She said something that I couldn’t hear above the ringing in my ears. She punched Chastity just below her right ear. Freya didn’t pull back her fist. Her hand stayed, stuck in the white field of power. Freya shook spastically. Her eyes rolled back. The white ran up her arm and around her neck. Tendrils of smoke rose above her head. I ran to try and pull her out of harm’s way. As soon at I touched her leg my hands burned. I fell back.

“Stupid sub-humans. You spread across this land like a disease,” Chastity said, "Let great Lengnil be the land's cure" Behind her was the coffin. The dust of Lengnil whirled around in the wind above it. Smoogers ran in all directions. Chastity shook with laughter. The rod fired another bolt of white light. Smoogers and dirt blew into the air. Freya hung with her fist stuck in the white energy, she was losing consciousness.

Jenna stumbled toward the coffin. She pulled a bead from her necklace and tossed it in. There was a flash, and a boom. The dusty corpse blew apart. The dust burned in a shimmering fountain of white sparks. Chastity’s face didnt relax. The light still ran along her body. She trembled with the power of the staff.

“It wants me to shoot again,” Chastity said. This time it was her voice.

“Put it down,” Jenna said. “Take the pearl out.”

Chastity looked at the pearl. She looked back at us. She held the staff level. "I can't!" She said.

“Take out the pearl!” Jenna said.

Chastity blinked. She pointed the staff right at Jenna.

Freya was still hanging limp from the energy field. With a start, her eyes opened and narrowed. Her arm, hanging in the energy, tensed, spasmed and lurched through the field. She pushed the glowing orb. It came out of the staff with a click, and rolled across the grass. The white light dissipated. Freya fell to the ground at Chastity’s feet.

Grundy grabbed Chastity. “Lets take that apart,” he said. Jenna nodded. She pulled the pieces of the staff apart. Moans and wails filled the air. The smoke from charred smooger hung around us.

“What about him?” I asked. I pointed at the coffin of Lengnil.

“He’s gone now, it seems” Jenna said. She knelt at Freya’s side. She mumbled incantations and ran her hands along Freya’s skin. Freya’s hand and arm were covered with white blisters.

“What happened?” Chastity asked.

“You don’t remember?” I asked.

“I don't remember,” she said. She looked at the pieces of smooger all around. A crying smooger child tugged at the smoking body of its mother.

“Let’s get out of here,” Drexel said, "I think we've done enough good for one day"

“Freya needs rest,” Jenna said.

“She can rest somewhere else,” Drexel said.

Freya leaned down to pull a shining belt buckle out from the mud. It was Reese's. She tossed it away.

“We really are heroes today, just like in Buba.” Freya said, grimly. "If only Cloda could see us now."